first person
What’s in a Name?
Being forced by prison authorities to publish anonymously caused me to reflect on the long history of Black authors choosing names in response to state violence.
incarcerated and formerly incarcerated authors
75 posts in ‘incarcerated and formerly incarcerated authors’
poetry
Hard Time in Prison
I had one / wish it will be I wish I can / get out of this cuz this is / a suffering pain time I’m doing
poetry
Two poems
“Shower Call Down Below” & “29 L-Building”
poetry
Hi Rise
I’m eligible to smoke til I fall clapping my / Hands and feet all the same time / Laffing at all this shit.
poetry
Poetry from Mississippi State Penitentiary
Work from poets incarcerated in Parchman’s Unit 29
poetry
Three poems
“Crying Johnny,” “Officer Judy Gives Instructions to the Lock Down Inmates,” & “Holiday Special Meal”
first person
39 Years
I rejected a plea deal and chose instead to go to trial. I would not understand until too late that I had placed a target on my back.
first person
On Aging and Dying in Captivity
This year I passed a grim milestone: I’ve now been in captivity longer than I’d been alive when I was arrested.
Life Inside
Death by Design
There are no good prisons—but even minor design changes could make them less awful to be trapped inside.
In the States
The People v. the Prison
California is discovering the hard way that you can’t leave decarceral reforms in the hands of prison officials.
abolition
A Thousand Possibilities
Abolition requires the world-building work of imagining all the many life-affirming alternatives to incarceration.
law & policy
Breaking the Chains
Ending prison slavery and giving fair wages to incarcerated workers are necessary steps on the pathway to justice.
Life Inside
The Last Breakfast
I kept my promise to break bread with my friend Dobie one last time, right before the state of Louisiana put him to death.
A closer look
Squinting in the Sunlight
Most reentry programs assume a person who is able to work and live on their own. Those of us who are older don’t have that kind of freedom.
Life Inside
Unsettled People
Prison transfers are routinely used to punish, disorient, and isolate incarcerated people, disconnecting them from family, friends, community, and all sense of place.
advocacy
Not a Fix-All
Electing progressive prosecutors is but one tool in a multifaceted, collaborative approach to ending mass incarceration.
Q&A
Picturing the Crisis
A new book uses art to make the horrors of mass incarceration as visual, and visceral, as possible.
culture
A Narrative of Control
Mass incarceration rests on false narratives that carceral institutions themselves control. But some of us are fighting back.
Surveillance
For the Public Good
While on parole in Oregon, homelessness, unemployment, and lack of services kept me in survival mode. This is not public safety.
poetry
The Names They Call Us
“I applaud, your / Frankenstein’s monster, forevermore.”
first person
The Banality of Mandatory Surcharges
In New York and elsewhere, exploitative court-ordered fees shouldn't saddle a person who is already poor and criminalized.
poetry
Prisoner of Poetry
“What does it mean to be an / incarcerated poet?”
Essay
Hip Hop Is My Life
I spit bars on Death Row to preserve the legacy of our people, what’s been done to us, and how we’ve fought back.
poetry
“Incarcerated Slavery” & “2 crack a smile”
“The cotton field / is replaced by walls of steel . . . ”
first person
Ink from Honey
Poetry can help incarcerated authors to reclaim the story of their life.
poetry
“Don Haitian Monument” & “The Hunters”
“Paralyzed in shock / by slave raid tactics, / my trembling hands on the wall . . .”
first person
Closed Doors
Prison is no place for grief and closure. Yet even as I mourned, glimmers of love and life surrounded me.
first person
Learning to Live
For incarcerated people, prison education programs can offer not only knowledge but also hope that a different future is possible.
A closer look
Graying in Prison
There's no aging with dignity for people serving extreme sentences. Freeing them is only a start to a deeper paradigm shift.
Policing
Unsafe on Campus
Policing on college campuses falls hardest on formerly incarcerated students, leaving them and the broader community unprotected.